


Professor Kent

by VulcanAizawa



Series: Snippets, Twitfic, and Musings that turned to Narrative [6]
Category: Superman - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:13:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22488487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VulcanAizawa/pseuds/VulcanAizawa
Summary: After Kamino, one of Toshinori's old professors swings by to check on him. He reveals some secrets and sparks some curiosities that neither of them ever imagined would still lay in store for them, after Clark had ended their ill-advised affair that junior year of college.
Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Aizawa Shouta/Clark Kent, Yagi Toshinori/Clark Kent
Series: Snippets, Twitfic, and Musings that turned to Narrative [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1590355
Comments: 7
Kudos: 74





	Professor Kent

**Author's Note:**

> Some past SuperBats mentioned, but it's been a couple centuries since Bruce was alive.

Consider, Clark teaching at the american university Yagi attended.

* * *

  
  
Superman - centuries old now and moving into his silver fox phase - still holds on to his civvie identity. He's from a time before heroes went mainstream, and though he's happy other heroes can be out and publically doing their work now... it still feels strange to let go of the secret identity he held so close to his chest for so long.  
  
A few people know of course, the ones who _have_ to. He's actually part of an agency now - not the Justice League anymore, that... well, it didn't dissolve so much as just become something new once hero work was legalized - but Clark still struggles with change. He found it easier to start somewhere completely new than to try to adjust to something that's hauntingly familiar but not _quite_ right. He doesn't patrol as Superman often anymore though, he's more than content to leave it up to the next generation.  
  
In fact, he's trying to guide them the best he can as Professor Clark Kent, teaching something like mental health studies or "how to gently help civilians without accidentally overpowering them with your ridiculously trained hero quirks because look you guys really gotta learn control okay we cant keep replacing the doorframes you all keep walking into" 101.

And then here comes this bright, blonde undergrad, all wide eyed and barrel chested and so idealistically Plus Ultra.

Reminding him so much of his younger self.  
  
Knowing that if Bruce were still alive (it's been two centuries and some change. Bruce was quirkless, and human. Clark always knew he'd outlive the man. He'd tried to make it easier on them both, tried not to fall to deeply into his growing emotions, tried to keep his distance once he realized he couldn't stop it... but Bruce wasn't having it. Clark misses him so much.) the man would absolutely hate All Might.  
  
_"Too flashy,"_ Bruce would say. He would be amused though, probably shoving his feet into Clark's lap while he tried to grade, just to try annoy him. In Batman mode though, he would be more serious about it. Properly analyzing the kids chances, and gruffly shooting down Clark's praises for the promising young hero.  
  
_"Too idealistic. Too reckless."_

As though the quirkless man who still insisted on doing hero work had any right to talk there - although even to this day the elusive original underground hero Batman would still and always rank number one amongst anyone in hero study programs across the world, Clark and a few others were still the only ones aware he was quirkless the whole damn time.  
  
He was just too damn good at his job for anyone to ever find out, or for anyone who was ever told to care.  
  
Except Clark. Clark had always cared.  
  
_"Too much like you."_

So yes, call him narcissistic, if you must, but he's drawn to that light in the young man.  
  
That light of hope and justice that Clark himself feels only the embers of anymore, growing cold and worn within him after decades on decades of facing increasingly darker sides of humanity. He wants to grasp that light for himself again.  
  
And after all this time on his own, he would also like to be able to fuck someone into the bed frame without worrying about snapping their spine in two. However, of age as he may be, that Yagi kid is not only still centuries younger than him, but also his student. That... that can't happen.

* * *

Meanwhile, Toshinori is intrigued by the upperclassmen's Continued General Studies And Humanities professor.  
  
He's kind, gentle, but there's an underlying strength in his eyes every so often that reminds Yagi of Nana.  
  
There's an occasional weight on his shoulders too, a burden dragging the normally broad and open man down, his expression closed and somehow far, far away, that... also reminds him of Nana.  
  
The most intriguing thing, though, is that from what he's gleaned from other students' conversations (and pestering Dave constantly, considering his friend was in more than a few advanced courses and had Professor Kent on Tuesdays and Thursdays), the man has never made any mention of his quirk.  
  
The prevailing theories are that the professor is either quirkless - which is rare for a teacher at a predominantly hero focused university, though given Professor Kent's apparent age (the age he wears so very well, considering all the dreams Yagi has been having lately of spattering those pretty silvering streaks at his dark temples with thick white cum after pulling out of the professor's mouth, knocking those sexy thick black glasses askew) it may not have been all that uncommon for his generation. After all, the rate of quirked individuals is steady growing, which means that at one point it must've been more common to be quirkless. With how happy Professor Kent seems on most days, and Toshinori's own complex regarding his previous quirklessness... he kind of hopes that's the case.  
  
That someone who's quirkless could really make such a name for themselves.

The other theory, considering the rumors of the Professors eagle eye for cheating or slacking off in class, is X-ray vision that the man just doesn't advertise in order to give himself an advantage. Toshinori... might... maybe adjust his stance a bit wider, sit with his legs splayed out farther, bulge angled towards the passing professor whenever he walks by.  
  
Just... in case that's true.

* * *

That first year, all the upperclassmen are FUMING over this one freshmen, this kid calling himself "All Might," who keeps beating everyone's ass at the wet t-shirt contests on party weekends.  
  
But there's a couple seniors In The Know, who've been through the great heat wave of 20XX. They have a secret weapon. They've seen what sweet, gentle, chisel jawed but otherwise soft looking, silvering and laugh line crinkling Professor Kent is packing under those sweater vests.  
  
They know what true image lies underneath all the underclassmen's presumptuous of this soft, kindly older gentleman all ripe and ready for ruining by these young buck hero students all rough and raw around the edges. Or at least, so goes most of the students fantasies regarding Clark - _the restrained older sweet midwestern boy who's never done anything like this before, please... please be gentle w-with him..._  
  
No, the seniors know what truly lies under that veneer of unassuming professorial aesthetic.  
  
They make arrangements, that spring break, to allow the staff to compete. Knowing that they may not be able to reclaim their honor as seniors over this plucky freshman, but that they can at least take this last, most important victory from him.  
  
No freshman has ever won the Spring Break Wet T-shirt Contest, and they never will. Not even All Might.  
  
That night, Toshinori's fantasies of being the one to finally seduce the sweet Professor Kent into cute, nervous, slightly awkward love-making are ripped away with Clark's dress shirt as the man throws his head back and laughs at the over eager seniors (he was told of the plan, of course - it was the only way to get him to agree, and he was highly amused by the seniors' desperation to one up this freshman) and succinctly replaced with something _new_ as the water comes crashing down on that fucking barrel of chest.  
  
From that night on, it was always Professor Kent doing the pinning down and the fucking and the flustering and the gentle coaxing of Toshi's mouth to his nipples via one hand tightly fisted in blonde hair and tugging, gentle at first then harder and rougher and-

He hadn't planned on taking any further humanities courses, but he finds himself enrolling in Professor Kent's "Intro to Seeming Small: How To Put Civilians At Ease When You're Built Like A Brick Shit House (The Psychology Of Your Influence On Others)" course next semester.

* * *

Everyone taking Professor Kent's class for the first time, no matter who, no matter what class, is always shocked when the man drops... gasp... a cuss word.  
  
He keeps up the sweet midwest farm boy outside of class, but in his lecture hall?  
  
That is his domain. No one is ever prepared for him to go all... he's not one of the Devil Professors by any means, but he's... more Aizawa-ish, actually.  
  
Blunt, tells it like it is, doesn't have time for anyone wasting his.  
  
But he's still fun, much more so than even Toshi had expected. He's so incredibly intelligent and teaches in unique, easy to follow and retain ways, even if he's a bit strict in his work ethic and highly demanding of his students.  
  
Also, holy shit, apparently he cusses.  
  
So to tally it all up, he's hot... and he's cool... and he's the best academic teacher Toshi's ever had... and he's snarky and sarcastic in a fun way, and jokes around a less innocent ex-farmboy manner and more of an oh, this guy has seen some shit and gotten up to even more kind of way

It's not long before simple wank fantasies turn into Toshi falling hard and fast.

Clark, for his part, tries his best to behave. In the end, his desire to Be Good and Save People is his inevitable undoing.

So when Professor Kent's super hearing picks up someone calling out his name one night desperate and breathless (he tries to keep it damped down out of respect for other's privacy, but perks up at certain cues like his name and/or 'help'), his old Superman instincts kick in before he can think better of it - quickly x-ray visioning across the building to its source, trying to see who's in trouble and if he can help.

Only to find Toshinori, that young undergrad who's been flirting with him, furiously jacking off in his dorm room, moaning his name, fisting his massive slick cock with one hand and shoving a toy deeper into his ass with the other. 

He can hear Bruce's voice in his head now.

_ 'Clark, you fucking dumbass.' _

His resolve doesn't last long after that.

* * *

Their affair is wild and passionate and wonderful, though altogether short lived. It doesn't go down in flames, or with any spiraling drama. It ends with a quiet night in Professor Kent's office as the older man quietly explains that this... this isn't right. They shouldn't have started this in the first place, not with the imbalanced position the two of them are in, as professor and student. It is a somber, sad night, but Toshinori accepts it, and returns to his dorm. The wound feel very fresh for the next few months, but the world is at All Might's feet and Dave is at his side, helping him take it by storm.

Even though he's the one who made the decision... it's much harder for Clark to get over.

Much later, after years of being out of touch, Clark hears about Kamino and drops everything to head to Japan and check up on the young man he can admit he loved (and still does, to some degree). He finds a man older and wiser, more broken and yet stronger than even Clark ever was, in his place. They have one hell of a heart to heart, Clark offering the support he came to give, and Yagi stunning the man with the depth of his new insights.  
  
They both learn things from the other that night.

* * *

Chief among what Clark shares is, of course, that he was Superman. The original precursor to the Symbol of Peace, before the world even knew it needed one. It's the main thing he wanted to explain, so he could offer his support to Yagi with the other man well aware that Clark knew what he was taking about. Had been there, done that, and would be there for Toshinori through the same - Toshinori who had so wonderfully picked up and carried that Symbol Of Peace mantle that Clark at the time, long before All Might's rise and his effect on the world, or even organized hero work in general, didn't even realize he'd held let alone put down for the next generations to carry.  
  
It makes Yagi feel Not So Alone in this anymore, knowing he has someone at his back who'd born the same weight of the world, and had also had to learn how to put it down and pass on the task to the next heroes in line.  
  
And then the topic comes up of the Batman.  
  
It's only natural, now that Clark can speak of Bruce in his true capacity for the first time in... in centuries, for the man to slip into the conversation almost constantly. Its so easy to talk to Toshinori, just like it used to be back when what they had was Dangerous, that Clark finds himself letting slip about Bruce's quirkless nature. Suddenly, Yagi is sitting ramrod straight - the adrenaline Clark can hear making his heart rate increase is far too strong for the reaction to merely be surprise.  
  
"...Toshinori, what is it? I figured you'd be surprised, but you seem... struck by it."  
  
And then Yagi reveals that he wasn't just a late bloomer, he was... quirkless.  
  
That his power was given to him, and as a result he defined himself and his ability by the growth of his quirk - and later, the fading of it - for so long...  
  
He admits how afraid he was of being quirkless again, of being useless again, and that to know the pioneer of the underground hero system - arguably the most vital part of what they do - had been quirkless the whole time?  
  
It was... a lot to try and figure out what it means for him. What... kind of possibilities that might mean for him.  
  
_"Can someone become a hero even if they don't have a quirk?"_  
  
Up until this very moment, Toshinori always would have answered that with a No.  
  
Not that he didn't think people without quirks weren't worthy of it, he just didn't see how. He became a pro hero only after receiving a quirk. Midoriya, though surely a true hero in his own heart regardless, only had any hope of getting into U.A. once he'd received it as well.  
  
But Batman... Bruce Wayne... had done it. He starts a bit at the warm hand covering his own - an altogether rare and unique feeling, for largeness of someone else's hand to match his - and Clark stares nervously up at his face.  
  
"Toshinori... are you here?"  
  
"I'm here," he murmurs back, eyes fixating on the little curl bouncing at Clark's forehead. A touch more silver, but as lush and springy as it ever was. He tugs it lightly, playfully, and watches it bounce back into place. "Just... re-evaluating some things."  
  
Clark's face splits into a warm grin that still warms Yagi's belly, even after all the this time. "You worried me for a minute there, cheeky." Toshinori throws his head back and laughs, the professor's old nickname for him bringing back fond memories of talking back in class, challenging Clark's theories (though he rarely won, he'd like to think he gave Clark a run for his money on most of them), and even... well, ah... being a little bratty when he'd finally snagged the professor for his bed, back in the day.  
  
It seems that particular word association hits Clark at about the same time, his cheeks coloring nicely as he coughs and scoots back more properly towards his side of Yagi's small sofa.  
  
It's a bit awkward for a moment as silence settles between the two for the first time since Yagi welcomed his surprise visitor into the dorms.  
  
Then Yagi starts chuckling.  
  
It's low in his gut, nothing much more than a rumble, but it sets Clark off into a stifled giggle as well.  
  
Then hearing Clark start to chuckle makes Toshinori laugh harder, which then in turn sets Clark off well and proper, and soon both men have escalated to throwing their heads over the back of the couch and laughing until their stomachs hurt.

"L-look at us," Yagi chokes out as sporadic coughs start coming in through his guffaws. "Two old m-men, grown and retired, still flustered over the fact we fucked a couple times back in school!"  
  
Clark is crying and he's holding his stomach, unaccustomed to having to struggle for breath against the tide of laughter.  
  
"Y-you... you still blush the s-same way," he gasps, squinting over through the sting of happy tears at Toshinori. "All the way up to your ears! S-still can't hide it at all!"

It takes a while, because as soon as they start winding down one of them does something to set the other off again, but eventually their breath returns and conversation comes easy. They both sink down against the sofa with a sigh, worn out, leaning on each other. Clark's hand seeks out Toshinori's again and takes it, nervously. Hesitantly. Toshinori doesn't pull away, and in the quiet of man's living room Clark takes the leap.  
  
"It... wasn't just fucking. You know that, right?"  
  
Toshinori's hand stiffens for a moment, then curls around Clark's.  
  
"I didn't, actually," he breathes quietly into the evening. "I... afterward, I thought... I knew you respected me, as a student and as a hero. That's why you ended things, after all. I never thought you were just using me, or anything, but... I thought I couldn't hold your attention. That I was young, and... and an adventure, but... no, I didn't realize there was more to it. On... on your end, I mean," Toshinori stammers out the last bit, still embarrassed at how far he realized he'd fallen for the professor by the time Clark finally put his foot down, insisting they couldn't keep doing this so long as they were professor and student.  
  
Still embarrassed at how much that had hurt, despite even at the time knowing it was the right thing for Clark to do.

"Oh, you _were_ an adventure to be sure," Clark grins over at him with a breathless chuckle. "-but right from the very beginning, there was just... something about you, Toshinori. I saw... it was like... looking at a better version of myself, from so long ago. I wanted to know more about you, I had to. You... _fascinated_ me," now it's Clark's turn to blush, feeling the heat rise up his neck as Yagi turns his gaze over.  
  
"So I... encouraged your interest, " Clark shifts a little uncomfortably. "Far more than I should have, and more knowingly than I let on."  
  
"Ah... haha... I should've realized that, I suppose," Yagi sheepishly rubs at the back of his neck. "Looking back, I was... hardly subtle."  
  
Clark snorts, the dark twist in his gut that still lingers from his guilt over what doing such things with a student - even though Toshinori wasn't in many of his classes and Clark never let what they did behind closed doors affect the young man's grades - uncoils and eases as he talks things over with the man in question, so long after the fact. Both of them older and wiser and neither of them in any position of authority over the other. What comforts him most of all is hearing that Toshinori is still even now, in the fullness of his wisdom and years, okay with what they did.

"Toshinori, I don't think you even knew the _meaning_ of the word subtle back then. The only thing that saved my ass was my literal decades of tenure. I'm certain the entirety of the permanent staff knew from the beginning. Some probably even suspected things before we actually began anything."  
  
"Ah... I'm sorry," Yagi grimaced. "I never even considered how it might affect your career, even though we weren't-"  
  
"I could've told you no," Clark cuts him off, gently chiding. "I was the older man... _much_ older, and knew exactly what I was doing. I _should've_ told you no."  
  
"...but you didn't," Toshinori coaxes softly, running a callused thumb over the back of Clark's hand.  
  
"No, I didn't." Clark hums for a moment, having a bit of trouble searching his memory for the words to describe how he felt back then. "Because the moment you enrolled in my class, the moment you opened your mouth and challenged me in the middle of my own lecture, and challenged me _well_... I knew you were going to be something amazing, and I wanted to be as much of a part of that as I could. And the way I watched you grow, how quickly you learned, and all the different ways you'd apply that knowledge... ways I never even imagined," Clark turns and hits Toshinori with that warm, blinding grin again. The smile he'd never, ever forgot. The one he tried for years and years to reproduce perfectly, one he could get close to but never quite right.

"Yes, it _was_ just fascination that led me to encourage you, to... to take the risk of having you, but once I _knew_ you and learned who you were and saw the way you treated people, saw your passion and drive intimately and daily... god, Toshinori, I loved you before I could stop myself."  
  
Yagi doesn't really know what to say.  
  
It had been... so long. He'd exchanged a few professionally courteous letters with the man, through his own rising career, but ever since Clark cut him off in junior year he'd not _properly_ spoken to him since. He'd been left to his own interpretations of what had happened, and had settled on Clark being a Good Man, doing The Right Thing after being tempted away by Yagi's own brashness, and ultimately uninterested in this young hero who he respected as a colleague but knew could never quite match up to him in maturity.  
  
Hearing this, after so long, is... a little difficult, honestly.  
  
He thinks he loved Clark, too, but he isn't sure what that means for him now. He licks his lips, anxious.

"Do you... do you still...?"  
  
Clark takes the question seriously, giving time to consider it before speaking quietly and decisively.  
  
"Of a sort, perhaps, but not in the same way I did, I think. You?"  
  
"Yeah," Toshinori hums, sagging back into the sofa. "Yeah... me too." He is relieved, that Clark seems to be feeling the same way about it all that he does. Even if he's also a little... mournful, for the feelings that were lost between them.

"Ah, that's not to say," Clark clears his throat, grip tightening around Yagi's hand. "-that I don't still have, ah... _interest,_ just-"  
  
"In _this_ body?" Toshinori can't help but blurt it out, brows raising and a disbelieving gurgle rising in his throat. Clark turns those piercing blue eyes directly on him, suddenly fierce and burning and angry and oh god is this what people saw whenever All Might turned his combative gaze on them and-  
  
"In _you_ , Toshinori." Clark shifts in the blink of an eye, suddenly straddling Yagi's lap and pushing his big hands straight up Toshinori's shirt. The right palm immediately curves over his scar, holding fast and warm. "-and yes, your body is part of that."  
  
Toshinori can't move. It's like that first night, when he couldn't believe what he was actually about to have, when he couldn't process that those big hands were really sliding up his stomach, pinning him down into Professor Kent's squeaky, ratty office couch.  
  
"If anything, I'm more fascinated by it than I've ever been, now that it bears the marks of your life and wisdom and growth. Toshinori, I..." Clark bites his lip, looking down at the shocked man beneath him.  
  
He'd prepared to face someone with a familiar name but a new spirit - to recognize that the young man he'd loved was grown and gone, changed and shaped in the way life tends to affect a person. He hadn't been prepared for that new Yagi Toshinori, with all his serenity and struggle and self-sacrificing resignation in the face of what he knew needed to be done, to be even _more_ fascinating than the young shining beacon of forty or so years ago.

"I... want to know this new you, too, the way I knew you back then," he murmurs, dipping his head low to brush his lips against the trembling curve of Toshinori's neck. So slender now, tantalizingly delicate, such a different shape than he'd known so long ago. "Our feelings won't be the same, because _we_ aren't the same... but I still want to know. I want to know what it is that we could have _now_ , whatever that might be. You... you're _amazing_ , Toshinori," Clark grins against Yagi's skin as he repeats his earlier words, his admission to why he'd originally given in to the young man's early flirtations to begin with. "-and I want to be a part of that again... if you'll let me?"

Oh... his body may be more slender, his hips more delicate, his collarbone sharper and his neck more fragile, but those hands...  
  
Those are the same big, hot, heavy hands Toshinori has always had.  
  
Clark knows this for sure, as one them curls around the knee straddling the outside of Yagi's lap and slides up the back of his thigh, slow and teasing until it palms his ass and pulls him in tighter. Toshinori moans low into his ear, tone pitched much lower than it used to be but no less breathless.  
  
"P...professor..."

* * *

Toshinori and Clark get a little carried away with their, uh... reconnecting, and are interrupted by a couple quick, hasty knocks on the door.  
  
They yank apart from where they're making out hot and heavy and moaning on the sofa, still kind of in that instinctual "oh no, we cant get caught" mindset that lingers from their illicit college activities. Yagi manages to pull himself together just enough to be presentable and opens the door.  
  
Only to find Aizawa squinting and glaring with the faintest of blushes (and an elevated heartbeat, which Clark picks up on) who's scowl is no less effective with half his face tucked and hidden in his floating scarf.  
  
"You have _neighbors_ now, Yagi-san."

And now the whole hall knows that All Might Fucks.

Yagi is... extremely embarassed. But then Clark is standing behind him with that easy grin that usually always puts people at ease, and apologizing in that sweet farmboy way that always smooths over every situation. Yagi would've stopped him, knowing how Aizawa had originally reacted to All Might (and the mannerisms Toshi had, if unwittingly, picked up from Clark himself), if he hadn't been so mortified.  
  
Because Aizawa's reaction is the exact opposite of most folks to Clark's big, humble, smiling presence. His hackles raise and his scowl deepens and his eyes glint dangerously, and he cuts Clark off midway through his reassurances of "-idn't mean to be a bother none, so f'ere's anythin' I can-" by just turning sharply on his heel and walking away.

It's an unusual reaction to Clark.  
  
Unusual as it is... it's also familiar in a very particular way, and that burns sharp and sudden low in is gut. Oh, Bruce would like this one. 

* * *

Aizawa had always looked up to the legend of the Batman, much in the same way Izuku looks up to All Might.  
  
He's a Super Secret Nerd about it, a room full of merch and everything.  
  
Clark... may have peeked through the walls, curious about the coworker Toshinori gets so nervous around, and seen the room. Its adorable, he thinks. So he... maybe teases a little. Brings the legend of Batman up in conversation occasionally.  
  
Shouta is immediately on edge because people don't just... _talk_ about the Batman. He's not commonly known outside of certain circles, considering his mainly underground impact and how it was somewhere over 200 years since his retirement and assumed eventual death. So he can tell this Kent guy knows _something_ more than he's letting on, but can't figure out why or how. So he's trying to balance out wanting to be stand-offish and bitter with this _clearly_ lying individual (for fuck sake Yagi no one can be _that_ genuinely hapless and affable) due in no small part to some lingering, unspoken jealousy over "losing" Yagi to his old professor before Aizawa ever worked up the guts to confess himself, but... he also _really_ wants to know more about the Batman.

The man _pioneered_ the underground hero system, before there was ever even any sort of organized hero process.  
  
Quick. Efficient. In and Out. Not flashy, not proud, not in it for a recognition.  
  
Clark only feels a _little_ bad then as a result, when - at Toshinori's urging, because it could help so many people growing up like he did, quirkless and ashamed of it - he publishes a memoir of his work with Bruce and reveals to the world (and Shouta, who shelled out for a first edition copy of the first ever Batman tell all, courtesy of the famed retired hero Superman who had worked with him _personally_ , right from the very beginning) that said idol of practical efficiency was actually also a master of the art of media schmoozing.

Someone who recognized and utilized every aspect of his fame, money, and recognition, thrusting it in every ones faces at any opportune moment (all necessary to cover Batman's secrets and be in the right places at the right times, meeting the right people, etc. etc., but still) and all in all not just the founder of the _underground_ system, but also of the modern mainstream hero system that focuses so hard on PR and marketing. In fact, the current system is almost modeled to a 'T' after all of Bruce's work with establishing The United Justice League under the Wayne name after hero work was legalized.

So yeah, he feels a little guilty when he's peeking through the walls again - watching Aizawa read the book because he just _has_ to see his reaction - and Shouta suddenly stands up and slams the damn thing closed, chucking it forcefully onto his desk, struggling with the fact that one of his most formative influences was playing up to everything he hates about hero society the entire time... even though it was under a different identity.  
  
Hell, _invented_ it even.

Clark finds himself wanting to go over and comfort the man, somehow. Find some way to better explain that Bruce did it all for a reason, knowing the precedent it would set but also being aware the overall impact would be better than the alternative - a constant struggle between heroes and civilians over whether the public could really trust these strange rescuers they knew next to nothing about.  
  
Unfortunately, he's made several overtures since that first disastrous meeting, but he still can't seem to speak "Aizawa."

Toshinori would know how to better entreat the man. He hopes.

"...he likes practical things, from what I can tell," Yagi says over coffee the next morning. "Why do you ask?"  
  
"I think he's... upset, over how Bruce used that part of his persona," Clark sighs. "He... looked up to Batman a lot, it seems."  
  
"I can certainly see the similarities," Toshinori chuckles, drumming his fingers. "From what you've told me of the man, at least. I imagine you see even more?"  
  
"Every now at then I'll look at him," Clark mumbles, staring into his drink. "-and out of the corner of my eye, it's like he's suddenly... suddenly..."  
  
"Suddenly someone else, from long ago?" A sad smile spreads across Yagi's face as he thinks of Nana, and how much he both loves and hates when Aizawa-kun wears his hair up.

* * *

They end up settling on a fairly simple plan.  
  
Any sort of ploy would only raise Aizawa's suspicions further, and to be quite frank Toshinori has had enough of keeping secrets from the other man.  
  
They decide to tell Shouta Clark's identity, and let the younger man ask whatever questions he needs until he's satisfied with the answers and has a better, truer understanding of the man he hadn't even realized he'd put on such a pedestal. It would... hurt, to talk about Bruce so frankly. They hadn't delved too deep when he and Toshinori had spoken about him, just the basics of who they were to each other... and at least while writing the book he could get up and walk away if all the lost nostalgia got too heavy.  
  
This would most certainly be much deeper prying, certainly all the little things Bruce would do beyond just the clarity of his mind and the cleverness of his plans.  
  
Clark works himself into knots over it the night before. When _Toshinori_ is telling someone they need to rest, its... not a great sign. So imagine his shock when Aizawa stares at him in staff room, quiet and calculating, and asks only the one question:  
  
"If I asked _him_ if he was a 'good man'... how would he answer?"

Clark is stunned.  
  
Its... no where near the kind of question he thought he would have to answer, but in spite of his ill-prepared surprise... its not a difficult one at all.  
  
"He... he would laugh you out of his multi-billion dollar home."

The 'but _I_ would tell you yes, a thousand times yes' hangs between them unsaid.  
  
Aizawa cracks a crooked grin that makes Clark's stomach turn funny little loop the loops, and he walks out of the staff room without further comment... but that night he picks the book back up and sits on his bed, carefully and reverently turning to the page he left off on as if in apology.  
  
Then his head jolts back up and he swivels around, staring in the vague direction he knew Clark to be sharing Yagi's room, and promptly flips the man he now knows has X-ray vision the double bird.  
  
Clark is chuckling as he brings his vision back to himself, and Toshinori asks him if he's finally gone and cracked 'round the bend.  
  
"No, cheeky," he turns and wraps his big arms around Yagi's slender waist, and considers not for the first time how he could easily fit another man in his embrace right alongside him. "Though you and your damn coworkers are gonna drive me there soon enough."

* * *

Bruce isn't brought up again untill a few weeks later, after Shouta has let a bit of the wall he put up crumble in favor of learning more about Clark as less of 'Toshinori's ill-advised hookup' and more of his own man, with genuine love for the world... who he can't stop seeing flickers of All Might in.  
  
Or rather, he supposes he's seeing more Superman's influence on All Might, considering the order of operations at play here.  
  
In fact, Clark had been steadfastly and patiently working his way into Shouta's good graces so skillfuly and thoroughly that "Begrudging Respect" had completely skipped both the "Tentative Friend" and the "Enjoyable Companion" phases, going straight to the "Give In To The Tension That's Been Brewing Each Time You Challenge One Of His Theories And Tug Him Into A Small Supply Closet With Your Capture Weapon" phase.

Shouta had given Clark just enough time to 1) register that this was not a threat, and 2) answer his point blank demand of "are you and Yagi-san exclusive?" in the stammering, flustered negative before getting right down to work - pushing off of those broad fucking shoulders and wrapping his own strong thighs around that tree trunk of a waist.  
  
It wasn't as wide around as All Might's or Endeavor's, just off of an easy glance around, but it was strong and sturdy in it's own right.  
  
And it gave Shouta the magnificent opportunity to show off the power in his legs, keeping himself up and humping Clark's stomach with nothing more the clenching of his thighs as he worked the man's tie loose and Clark's own hands were scrabbling along the shelves behind them for purchase.  
  
It was all going rather well, in fact - Shouta sucking hickey after hickey into delicious midwestern farmboy neck, Clark hardening nice and pretty under his ass... they could do this. He likes Clark, really. The man is genuine and complicated and fascinating. And damn fucking sexy.

But he doesn't _yearn_ for him. Doesn't absolutely _need_ to keep the man in his life just to stay sane. They could try this, and then if it all goes down in flames then Shouta hasn't lost anything.  
  
Not like how it would be with Toshinori.  
  
So he gives in to his growing desire, fumbling hot and heavy with Superman in a tiny supply closet. Even trying out a little rough, gravelly, hero based dirty talk.  
  
Until Clark breathes out "Bruce-" against his collarbone.

As is only polite in such situations, Aizawa pulls away and steps back until Clark can get his sudden trembling under control. The man doesn't go any farther than a few shaky gasps, but hides his face behind one large hand regardless.  
  
"I... I'm sorry, I-"  
  
"I remind you of him."

"Y-... yes."  
  
Shouta grins openly, knowing that Clark would still be able to see it clearly in the dim light.  
  
"I'm sure it's... probably incredibly insensitive at this particular moment, but... that's really quite the best compliment you could possibly have given me."

A laugh punches it's way out of Clark's guy, unbidden. Oh, Bruce really _would_ love him.  
  
"Still, I... particular histories aside, I know its rude to be thinking of someone else while-"  
  
"I was thinking of All Might," Shouta mutters, suddenly looking at something conveniently behind Clark's shoulder rather than at his face. "Just... here and there. Its hard to separate the idea of him from you, to be honest. He's still around, yeah, but... not exactly an option for me. If you hadn't slipped up name wise... I probably would've." He shrugs, going for nonchalance.  
  
Clark shoves back the bubbling feelings of _guilt_ and _embarrassed_ and _miss you_ to clear his throat, and directs Aizawa's gaze back to him with one firm finger under the shorter man's chin. "So uh... about him not being an option for you... we should really talk about that some more. All _three_ of us."

* * *

  
Even after their little "heart to hear" (and cock to cock) in the supply closet, Aizawa is still prickly and grumbly and jealous over Clark's closeness with Toshinori, even with the slow, nervous inclusion of him in Yagi's romantic life. He doesn't _mean_ to continue being a bitch about it all, he's just... _bitchy,_ by nature. Not to mention slow to trust, and perpetually closed off to others.

Clark, still trying to get more solidly on this complicated man's good side, finds out Eraserhead's hero uniform got all globbed and grossed up by a villain attack the night before. So he makes an offer he thinks is fairly innocuous.  
  
"You know, I still have a bunch of the old batsuits, and they've held up pretty well. Theres one I think would fit your combat style rather nicely, do you want it?"

It takes everything in Aizawa's power not to drop to his knees and suck Clark's cock _right there._  
  
And now Clark - based off the sudden uptick in Aizawa's heartbeat - has a surefire way to weasel into the man's good graces. Old Batman equipment.  
  
Of which he... has a _lot_.

Clark finds it impossibly cute. The way Shouta accepts these things with an air of disinterest, grumbly and pouty and all "whatever," even though he's hiding his face in his scarf as he reaches out with nervous hands, he can't hide the entirety of his blush. And of course, Clark can hear his racing heart.

In fact, Eraserhead's first hero uniform had little nudges to the "batsuit" (because no one really knew for sure anymore what the batsuit was made out of, and there's a lot of reimagining out there - maybe one particular one that's accepted as "canon" and visually based off of old, blurry pics) until he got teased about it and ditched them. So these gifts are... significant.

Clark finds himself channeling a bit of Bruce, in fact, as he ends up going full Sugar Daddy with Shouta. He starts throwing old batman gear at the youngest of their little trio whenever he gets in a certain mood of horny, when he knows the _immense_ control required to keep himself from demolishing everything he touches might slip a little bit. Not all the way of course, he's still good enough after centuries of practice to not completely lose his head, but enough that someone like Toshinori in his new frailty could get hurt pretty bad (despite how Yagi insists he can take it).

Aizawa, however, almost seems to relish it when Clark gets a little rough with him. Enjoys the bruising and the punishing, pounding pace. But, because he a little fucking _brat_ , it takes some cajoling and coaxing and... yes, begging. There's nothing Shouta seems to like more than grinning down at Clark, nearly villainous in his smile, making the powerful man bend over backwards for him.  
  
Now, typically Clark certainly doesn't mind the begging. He's not so arrogant as to consider himself above such things, but when he's in _these_ moods, it just... pushes all the wrong buttons.  
  
Luckily, he learns he can skip the begging and the whining and really the having to ask for it at _all_ , as all it takes one tiny little envelope of old blueprints or a special function batarang added to Shouta's growing collection to have the young man bending over backward to please _him_ instead.  
  
...sometimes, quite literally. 

* * *

The day Clark shows him the Batcave... he has to laugh. Looking back, it was practically their strange little version of a proposal. His promise to Eraserhead to trust the man with Clark's most treasured, carefully kept secret.

Bruce had left him a little something. Just... a little biometric chip, one that once implanted would allow seamless control over all the Wayne Enterprise tech, like all the Robins had.  
  
He knew the kids would carry on his legacy, but he also knew Clark would live much, much longer than any of them. He raised a good group to take care of the world for the next couple generations, and had seen hero work get organized and work well.  
  
But what about centuries from now?  
  
Would the world.... would the world need Batman again?  
  
He'd been so casual about it too. Just, sliding the little box over to Clark one day at breakfast like

"If you find someone you think would be worthy of it, give it to them."  
  
So... with the LoV growing stronger and stronger, and knowing exactly what buttons to press to leverage distrust in mainstream heroes, and All Might's retirement shocking the world, and an era of unease start to settle because of it... knowing the mainstream hero organizations were at a disadvantage they hadn't been in for centuries but that the underground system didn't quite have the resources it needed anymore to combat it from that angle...

...he figures it's time to pass on the mantle properly, to the one man he's ever met who could deserve it.

Bonus Content: Shinsou, naturally becomes Aizawa's Robin. He and Clark take him to the cave in Tokyo, and they do a dramatic reveal of the original boy wonder's outfit. You know the one. With the green scale speedo.

"...Aizawa-sensei. I appreciate you and everything you do for me. I... I am supportive of your obsessi-... _respect_ for the Batman, and your desire to follow in his footsteps... but I'm not wearing that."

 **Clark** : "oh, haha... yes, I think that was... more of a hazing ritual for his new recruits anyway... here, let me show you Nightwing's outfit."

 **Shinsou** : [best friendship ended with Aizawa-sensei. Clark Kent is new best friend] 


End file.
